, symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Porth railway station (geograph 5629618).jpg , borough = Porth,

Rhondda Cynon Taf Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff (Welsh: ''Taf'') and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and vill ...

, country = Wales , coordinates = , grid_name =

Grid reference A projected coordinate system, also known as a projected coordinate reference system, a planar coordinate system, or grid reference system, is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on the Earth using cartesian coordin ...

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Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

, platforms = 2 , code = POR , classification = DfT category D , original =

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in st ...

, pregroup = Taff Vale Railway , postgroup = Great Western Railway , opened = 1876 , years = 4 February 1861 , events = First station opened , years1 = 1 July 1876 , events1 = Station resited , mpassengers = , footnotes = Passenger statistics from the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

, mapframe=yes , mapframe-zoom = 13 Porth railway station is a railway station serving the town of Porth in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. It is located on the Rhondda Line.

History

Two stations have served Porth. The first was opened on 4 February 1861 by the

; the line had been open since 10 June 1841. On 1 July 1876, the original station was closed, being replaced by a new one approximately to the east. The Rhondda Fawr line to Treherbert was singled north of here in 1981 and most of the 1876 station buildings were replaced in 1984–85. The now defunct

Maerdy Branch The Maerdy Branch was a railway branch line in South Wales. Financed and operated by the Taff Vale Railway, on amalgamation it became part of the Great Western Railway in 1923. Designed and mainly operated as a coal mining freight railway, its cr ...

along the

Rhondda Fach Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley ('' ...

valley to

Maerdy Maerdy (, cy, Y Maerdy) is a village and community (and electoral ward) in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, and within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying at the head of the Rhondda Fach Valley. History "Maerdy" i ...

and the collieries at Mardy and Ferndale used to diverge from the 'main line' to just north of the station at Maerdy Junction. Opened in stages between 1849 and 1856, the passenger service over this route ended in 1964, but mineral traffic to

Mardy Colliery Maerdy Colliery was a coal mine located in the South Wales village of Maerdy ( cy, Y Maerdy), in the Rhondda Valley, located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, and within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. Opened in 18 ...

continued to run until final closure of the branch in August 1986, when coal from Mardy was then raised from

Tower Colliery Tower Colliery ( Welsh: Glofa'r Tŵr) was the oldest continuously working deep-coal mine in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world, until its closure in 2008. It was the last mine of its kind to remain in the South Wales Valleys. It was loca ...

. The track was subsequently lifted in 1996, but the old formation can still be traced (along with the former up loop platform used by branch trains). A passenger service between Porth and was introduced by the Barry Railway on 16 March 1896, running via and ., but this ended in 1930 when the service was re-routed via the TVR station at Pontypridd (trains henceforth terminating there, except for summer excursions, until the service down to Barry finally ended in September 1962). An unusual ground level signal box was installed at the station when the Treherbert line was reduced to single track in 1981, replacing a much more substantial TVR structure. This holds the distinction of the being the last new mechanical box to be built by British Rail, though it had a working life of only 17 years before being abolished in 1998 when the Radyr signalling centre took control of the area.

Services

Monday-Saturday, there is a half-hourly service to via and southbound and to northbound, serving all stations en route except . This drops to hourly in the late evening. There is a two-hourly service in each direction on Sundays, with through trains to . On 20 July 2018, previous franchise operator Arriva Trains Wales announced a trial period of extra Sunday services on the Rhondda Line to Cardiff and Barry Island. This was in response to a survey by

Leanne Wood Leanne Wood (born 13 December 1971) is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from March 2012 to September 2018, and served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) from 2003 to 2021. Born in the Rhondda, she was elected as to the ...

and the success of extra Sunday services on the Merthyr Line and the Rhymney Line.

References

External links

{{Transport in Rhondda Cynon Taf Railway stations in Rhondda Cynon Taf DfT Category D stations Former Taff Vale Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1861 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1876 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1876 Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail 1861 establishments in Wales